Characters from the X-Wing Series who play a smaller role, if any, in the rest of the Star Wars Expanded Universe. Characters from this series which appear in large roles outside this series can be found on the appropiate character page.

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Rogue Squadron

Wedge Antilles

Wedge and X-Wings are the one absolute constant to the series. Wedge appears in almost every part of the series.

Ace Pilot: He's pretty much the best X-Wing pilot in the galaxy. Even Jedi pilots have a hard time against him.

A Father to His Men: Very much so. Wedge cares a lot for his pilots, and hurts a lot with every casualty.

Badass Normal: Though the normality is sometimes questioned. By Starfighters of Adumar, his nearly-inhuman reflexes, situation awareness, and experience add up to a level of skill that some regard as supernatural. In the narration he once mentions precognitive warnings - in the sense of pattern recognition serving that way, but still. At the end of the book he actually ignores his targeting computer and feels his awareness flow from his X-Wing into his opponent, knows what the other will do ahead of time, fires without looking, and disables the enemy craft. Wedge is explicitly not Force-sensitive, though; he was tested in two different ways in the Jedi Academy Trilogy and came up as a normal human both times.

The Cameo: Nearly in an example of a book version of Stunt Casting, Wedge shows up for one quick scene in Mercy Kill, despite appearing in the dramatis personae, whereas several members of Wraith Squadron didn't get billed.

Jerkass Façade: To new recruits who are rude or overconfident or mess up, he can be incredibly cruel, and to the rest he's generally a bit distant and not particularly friendly. But he cares deeply and honestly about his people, and when they prove themselves trustworthy, he'll back them to the end of the galaxy.

Mauve Shirt: By definition in the original films—a common alternative name for this trope is "Wedge-type character". Of course, this series is his Day in the Limelight.

Military Maverick: Wedge's tactics and approach can be very unconventional, such as assembling Wraith Squadron from a Rag Tag Bunch Of Misfits, or how he was intentionally trying to lose the Siege of Borleias during the Vong War.

Tycho Celchu

Alderaanian pilot whose family died when the Empire destroyed his homeworld. He's a very different character in the novels than he was in the comics, with his character going from a Hot-Blooded pilot to one who is endlessly patient and seems to have no temper whatsoever is usually attributed to the time he spent on the Lusankya being tortured by Isard.

Ascended Extra: one of the very few characters in this franchise who ever appeared in the movies (and even then, his two seconds of screen time were something of a Retcon).

Awesomeness by Analysis: When Corran has to fly against him (see below), he sees Tycho's fighting style through the Force as being like a computerised box of possible actions around Corran's craft, which gets smaller and smaller as Tycho meticulously eliminates all the possibilities and hunts him down.

Being Tortured Makes You Evil: No, but it does change his character. Compare Tycho in the comics to Tycho in the books. In the comics he's a hothead, sometimes flirtatious, and prone to cracking wise. Come the novels - after extensive torture in an attempt to make him a Manchurian Agent - and he's far more reserved, calculating, and never shown displaying any temper.

Continuity Snarl/Retcon: The first arc of the comics had Winter, who'd read up on him, telling another Rogue that he'd lost a fiance, Mia, on Alderaan and that he'd been drafted into the Imperial military, since he was a man of peace at heart. Two problems: it had already been decided that his fiancee's name was Nyestria, and he'd joined willingly and enjoyed his job. This was retconned by means of him correcting her at a party and saying that his records had been scrambled.

Improbable Piloting Skills: In I, Jedi Corran Horn, undercover as a pirate, flies against him, and barely survives despite being a Jedi drawing on the Force to stay alive. He later calls it the most difficult thing he's ever done in his life - Corran, who just a few chapters back was beaten physically and emotionally to a pulp by the spirit of Exar Kun. It's actually implied that Tycho may not have been trying to kill him, since Corran got a kind of message off suggesting that he wasn't a pirate—though given that the "message" was rather vague (a vision consisting of a "clutch" starfighter morphing into Corran's green X-Wing), and that Tycho still launched two proton torpedoes at him, it's rather unlikely.

Rank Up: Starts out as a Lieutenant in the comics, is a Captain through the novels and for much of his career, then promoted to Colonel, and finally retires as a General.

The Stoic: Even when he isn't sad, he looks sad. Janson notes that this makes women want to comfort him.

Wes Janson

Another long-time Rogue, and a temporary Wraith, Wes is a prankster and an excellent gunner. During the Yuuzhan Vong War, he led his own squadron of volunteers called the Taanab Yellow Aces. He later assisted the Jedi during the Second Galactic Civil War.

Continuity Snarl: One of the Marvel Star Wars storylines was Wedge's anguished tale, told to Luke, of losing his gunner on Hoth. It's since been retconned to a story Wedge would tell people before Wes would walk in, just to shake them up, and they even fooled Luke.

Oh, Crap: Unspoken. Wedge planned to work with Chewbacca on a mission; Wes remembered that Wedge can't speak Wookiee and went to every pilot in or related to Wedge's command, taking bets about what Wedge would do or say when he realized his mistake. Wedge realizes, arranges for a protocol droid to come with him and Chewie, and finds out what Wes did.

Captain Crash: He crashed on Hoth. He crashed on Prefsbelt. Hobbie is always crashing. He's been approached by bacta companies for endorsements because of it.

"Oh, I'm well enough. But the ground and I get along so well we sometimes get together a little too vigorously."

The Chew Toy: If someone not called Skywalker needs to lose a limb, or crash a vehicle or fighter, chances are it'll be Hobbie.

Continuity Snarl: In the deleted scenes, he rams an AT-AT when his speeder is damaged, and the EU had some trouble deciding whether it actually happened. Eventually, it was Hand Waved by saying he ejected offscreen.

Plourr Illo

The last surviving member of Eiattu IV's royal family, she didn't tell her squadron of her royal heritage until people from her world came looking for her. Her story was loosely inspired by the myth of Anastasia.

Action Girl: Stands out as such even in a series where most of the female characters are fighter pilots.

Amazonian Beauty: Particularly in the Duty and Honor story arc where she spends the entire arc wearing a very tight-fitting Bare Your Midriff athletic outfit which brings her closer to Ms. Fanservice territory than the more conventionally beautiful female characters in the series such as Winter, Feylis Ardele and Elscol Loro ever get.note Notwithstanding Feylis Ardele's very brief skinny-dipping scene with her love interest and that one infamous panel of Winter holding a glowrod in her mouth to keep her hands free while fixing electronics in the dark, that is...

Jerkass Façade: She's suspicious of strangers, hates incompetence, and likes to say insulting things about them and friends alike, rarely makinhg the effort to be nice. But looking at the panels, her body language is usually more sympathetic - pulling out a chair, sitting close to someone hurt or distressed, acting as medic. Plourr truly cares about her friends and the "common people" of her world, understands fears about family, and can tone down the snark if she has to.

Kissing Cousins: Marries her second cousin Rial, who she'd been engaged to since an early age.

Shoot the Dog: Killed her brother when they were both children, because the rest of her immediate family was being slaughtered in a revolution and he was trying to call the revolutionaries' attention to where she had escaped.

The Bus Came Back: The arc after she left the Rogues to rule her planet she returned with a squadron of fighters to pull a Big Damn Heroes moment - and the arc after that, she was with them again.

Nrin Vakil

A Quarren pilot who joined the squadron just before the campaign to restore Plourr as ruler. Initially clashed with Mon Calamari pilot Ibtisam, but the relationship developed into a tragic romance.

Fantastic Racism: His relationship with Ibtisam intially begins this way, as the Mon Calamari and Quarren species traditionally detest each other.

Took a Level in Badass: Though not known for his ground combat skills during the comics, when he reappears in Isard's Revenge, he wades in with two very large blaster rifles looking like an avenging water monster. As Tycho puts it, "You haven't seen Nrin in a firefight."

There Is No Kill Like Overkill: When the Rogues are trapped on a dark-side-infested moon and ambushed at night by bizarre natives, he runs off, initially seeming cowardly to Ibtisam. However, he had run to the landing zone, where he fights off a large number of natives to bring back his X-wing, which he then proceeds to use in pulverizing the opposition.

Ibtisam

A Mon Calmari pilot who joined the Rogues shortly before the campaign to restore Plourr. Initially hostile to Quarren pilot Nrin Vakil, but their relationships develops into something more romantic.

Death by Sex: Ibtisam dies in the same arc that she and Nrin finally become a couple.

Elscol Loro

A human female pilot who was with the squadron briefly during the beginning of the post-Endor campaign. Widowed by the Empire, she later becomes a hazard to her squadron mates when her last friend is killed, and Wedge is forced to fire her. However, he pairs her up with a betrayed Imperial Special Forces soldier, and together they liberate worlds (reappearing in The Bacta War).

Heroic BSOD: occurs in The Phantom Affair, when the mysterious "Jedi" popping up around the city reveals himself as her dead husband. It's not really him, but a mathematician/musician working against the Empire. She also later has one when her Wookie friend Groznick is killed, leading to reckless flying and an ejection from the squadron by Wedge.

Feylis Ardele

Human female pilot who joined shortly before the Plourr-restoration campaign. Was originally part of an Imperial-allied militia, and nervous about her standing with the other Rogues as a result. However, as Tycho, Hobbie, and several other Rogues had served with the Empire, her fears were soon allayed.

Action Girl: Feylis particularly distinguishes herself as a very cool fighter, both in the air and on the ground.

Battle Couple: When new pilot Avan Beruss joins during the Brentaal IV campaign, she is immediately attracted to him. Though initially hesitant because of her grief at losing two squad members in the previous campaign, she warms to him, saying she was pleased to save his life.

Avan Beruss

Human male pilot who joined during the Brentaal IV campaign. The nephew of one of the New Republic's Provisional Councilmembers, he is well versed in political maneuvers, but not as experienced in maneuvers in a snubfighter.

Battle Couple: With Feylis Ardele. He is immediately attracted to her upon joining the squadron, and later owes her his life in battle. They eventually become a couple, and he proclaims, "You keep me safe when we fly, I'll keep you safe when we swim."

It's All My Fault: When the Rogues are trapped by an Interdictor cruiser on Ciutric, Avan tells Feylis that because his aunt is on the Provisional Council, she will not send reinforcements to avoid the appearance of Nepotism. She makes a no-dying-pact with him, however, and they both survive.

Koyi Komad

A university student introduced in The Phantom Affair, this Twi'lek later became a mechanic for Rogue Squadron.

Continuity Nod: Stackpole's novels don't have much to do with her, but she did appear in one of Allston's, angered by a Fantastic Racism policy that was due to the efforts of Warlord Zsinj. Allston later noted that Komad had married Nrin Vakil, further tying into Vakil's interspecies romance pattern.

Off Model: Her one-panel cameo appearance in Masquerade was... something.

Gavin Darklighter

Ooryl Qrygg

Badass: Not only is he one of the better pilots in his generation of Rogue Squadron — tied with Corran and Bror for first to become an ace — but he's also insanely competent on ground missions, to the point of actually being scary on Talasea.

Bizarre Alien Biology: When Wedge is asked whether Ooryl can see in the ultraviolet range, his first thought is "I wouldn't be surprised. He doesn't breathe or sleep and can regenerate severed limbs."

A Day in the Spotlight: After being a marginal character in the first three books, he manages to get nearly as much focus as Corran in The Bacta War.

Good Thing You Can Heal: He loses an arm in Rogue Squadron. By The Krytos Trap, it's grown back. Slight subversion in that the regeneration takes a realistic amount of time, but still.

Third-Person Person: Done for different reasons than human versions of this trope who refer to themselves in this way to be arrogant. Ooryl's doing it out of humility, because he doesn't feel he's important enough to warrant first-person pronouns. Apparently, this is his species' hat.

Bror Jace

Faking the Dead: He is reported dead during an ambush on the way back home to Thyferra at the very end of the first book. It was in fact a set-up arranged by The MoleErisi Dlarit to eliminate the best pilot in the unit (and her business rival among the bacta cartels), but Jace managed to survive and fake his death so as to show up later to help out during the La Résistance phase of The Bacta War.

By 'managed to survive', he was faking his death by completely different means.

Improbable Piloting Skills: In the first book of the series, he has three "ace missions" — five or more kills in a single mission — and scores a total of twenty-two kills in only five missions, including NINE in the book's last mission.

The Rival: To Corran, in the first book where they're measuring their piloting abilities against each other. He beats Corran by one kill, perhaps softening Corran's arguable Canon Sue status a bit in the process.

Nawara Ven

Artificial Limbs/Career-Ending Injury: Loses a leg to a micrometeorite after ejecting from his doomed X-Wing in The Bacta War. In Star Wars this normally wouldn't be an issue, but his nervous system has just enough trouble interfacing with the prosthetic to make operating an X-Wing's rudder pedals tricky.

Chekhov's Skill: Once he mentioned that he used to be a lawyer in the first book of the series, we all just knew there was going to be a trial of some sort eventually. He has shown up in several other EU works defending main characters.

Lara Notsil / Gara Petothel / Kirney Slane

Blondes Are Evil: Played straight early on in Wraith Squadron, subverted in several ways after that. While serving as Gara Petothel, she hides her blonde hair under a black wig. She was born with black hair, but underwent the Star Wars form of cosmetic surgery to make it "naturally" blonde. She did have the hair color changed to blonde while she was infiltrating the New Republic as Chyan Mezzine...just before she made the betrayal that wiped out Talon Squadron.

Communications Officer: She plays this role in her first mission. She spots an ambush placed by Zsinj via transmissions, and warns the Wraiths of it before they get there. It's during the subsequent dogfight that she comes to an important realization that triggers her Heel-Face Turn.

Dark Secret: The reader is every bit as aware of it as she is, but Gara Petothel / Lara Notsil is a Deep Cover Agent who's gone through a private Heel-Face Turn, and is unhappily aware that the badly damaged pilot who she's falling in love with is damaged because of her actions.

Even Evil Has Standards/Heel Realization: While she's still The Mole, she has an internal monologue with herself about how Zsinj is a noble villain and Trigit... not so much. What causes her to first consider switching sides is the realization that Zsinj is actually just like Trigit, and therefore not worthy of her services. The actual decision to make her Heel-Face Turn was made easier by further tropes below, though...

Happily Married: Mercy Kill reveals that she and Donos got married and had children.

I Have Many Names: Between the personas she assumes during the series and the ones she adopted off camera that are mentioned at various points in the novels, she has four identities that we know of. It's quite possible that there are others.

Kick the Dog: Talon Squadron was wiped out because of information she discovered. When Myn falls in love with her (and she starts reciprocating), this rapidly becomes problematic.

Loss of Identity: She was trained from an early age to create a personality and a life, fully immerse herself in it, complete objectives including forming and betraying the closest of connections, and shed it without a qualm. To the point where later she can't even remember if her previous identities had friends and interests. At some point the handler who saw her between missions died before she came back into a splinter of Imperial service. There Gara became disgusted with her commanding officer's handling of his crew and arranged for his escape craft to be spotted by New Republic forces, then assumed a new identity and waited to be contacted, getting put into a New Republic fighter squadron. But something was different this time - she was affected by the Power of Trust and genuinely defected. She tried to throw away who she'd been and just be Lara Notsil, pilot, but she couldn't, and eventually her past came crashing in on her.

"All the furniture that made up the way I'd thought and felt about things all my life started coming loose in my head. Nowadays it slides around and breaks into pieces and I have no idea what parts of it are real and what aren't. It hurts, and a lot of the time I don't know who I am anymore."

Mama Bear: During her cameo in Mercy Kill, she makes it very clear to Vorrt that under no circumstances is he to recruit her children.

Power of Trust: Sitting in her new X-wing in flight on her first mission with Wraith Squadron, she sees that Wedge Antilles, Ace Pilot and hero of the Rebellion, is flying ahead of her, no shields. For years she'd been going out in false identities and betraying her comrades at the behest of her handlers, but now her handlers were dead, and she discovered that she could not stand treachery. Her resulting train of thought is what first triggers her Loss of Identity, Double Consciousness, and attempts at Becoming the Mask.

Such an odd feeling. Wedge Antilles was under her guns, yet he trusted her with his life.

He had no reason not to, of course. But he did. No one had in-how long? Forever.

She could eliminate him with a twitch of her finger.

It should have been tempting. Yet, somehow, it wasn't.

Such an attack would be treacherous.

Sanity Slippage: She slowly goes through one as she becomes the mask after infiltrating Wraith Squadron. It turns out that Imperial Intelligence was... lax in concerning themselves with what would happen to an agent after having so many different identities swirling around in their head. She manages to never show it, but some of her inner dialogue is downright depressing as she fights between her two /three different identities in order to stay with her Squadron.

Secret Identity Identity: In this case, rather than being a result of past trauma or a secret superhero identity, her problem stems from a very real conflict between who she wants to be be, and who her Imperial intelligence instructors have trained her to be. The rigorous, cruel methods used by her teachers, the constant assertions to assume her roles flawlessly because nothing else was of consequence, and the dictum to abandon everything, including emotional attachments, that would interfere with her fulfilling her mission is enough to mentally unbalance her for a time. Not only does there come a point when she is (briefly) no longer certain who she is, Lara or Gara Petothel, but she even finds herself missing Kirney Slane, a practice identity from her early days at the Academy, because Kirney's life was so much simpler and more carefree. This same identity is later adopted by her when her identity is exposed and she must take refuge with Zsinj, because she views Lara as having "died".

Thoroughly Mistaken Identity: A particularly old and addled man at a museum confuses Lara Notsil for someone else he once knew. In typical Star Wars fashion, he actually confused her for her mother, an Imperial Intelligence agent, like Lara/Gara/whatever-her-name-is-today herself. This confusion puts another Wraith on the trail to discovering her identity, no less.

We Will Not Use Photoshop in the Future: When Gara Petothel becomes Lara Notsil, she carefully edits all remaining records of the dead woman - there aren't many - to show Gara's fingerprints and genetic structure, Gara's image. When the Big Bad contacts her through Lara's brother, there are family holos in the background, and the Lara in them looks like Gara.

Note that it is unclear if she did the latter, or if Zsinj arranged for the latter... though given that the original Lara Notsil's brother was involved, it certainly wasn't an accident.

Would Not Shoot a Good Guy: Lara Notsil gets discovered to be the woman who caused the deaths of Talon Squadron, and she's well aware that the fact that she became the mask and went through a Heel-Face Turn doesn't change her history. Despite being shot at by her love interest, the only surviving member of Talon Squadron, all she does is flee. She goes to the enemy, Warlord Zsinj, as a Fake Defector, and when she actually has to face the squadron she powers down her lasers. Suspecting the situation, Wedge Antilles orders that she isn't to be fired on.

Myn Donos

Donos was a hot-blooded Corellian, until the squadron he commanded, Talon, was destroyed in an ambush just after they were fully instated. He was the only survivor through little more than luck. The ordeal has left him with heavy psychological scars.

Angst Coma: After Shiner, his astromech, is destroyed, he cracks and "goes away" into his own head because Shiner was the last Talon - the only thing he had left from his old squad. As long as Shiner survived, he hadn't completely failed them.

Cold Sniper: Even before the destruction of his squadron. Yes, he has looked down a scope at people completely unaware of his existence and pulled the trigger. No, he doesn't much like doing that. It's why he transferred to flying X-wings.

Dating Catwoman: He falls for Lara during the events of the Wraith Squadron series.

Improbable Aiming Skills: He pulls off some very impressive sniping tricks in the series, and the only times he seems to miss are for very difficult shots. A particularly notable instance is when he uses his sniper rifle to transmit a vislight detonation signal from ship to ship—he doesn't get it until the third shot, but that he made the shot at all....

Survivor Guilt: It's telling that he's more protective of his droid than his own life.

Garik "Face" Loran

As a former child star of propaganda holodramas, Face inspired many to join the Imperial army. Now, he attempts to atone for his childhood by flying for the New Republic. In 44 ABY he becomes the head of Galactic Alliance Security.

Ace Pilot: He begins the series with a few kills under his belt, and crosses the magic five-kills mark during the first book. He also has the second-highest score of the flight officers during training (only Kell did better).

The Atoner: He thinks he needs to pay back for helping the Empire when he was young.

Bald of Evil / Beard of Evil: Shaven bald by the time of the Yuuzhan Vong war, and naturally bald by the events of Mercy Kill. While not actually evil, he does eventually rise to the head of a galaxy-wide intelligence agency. Allston said that he wanted Face's appearance to be that of a stereotypical evil mastermind.

Glurge: The only one of his old roles for which we get a synopsis features Face as a loyal Imperial child who ends the film being shot by his pro-Rebellion father as he runs to meet the Emperor, and begs Palpatine to destroy Rebels like his father as he dies in Palpatine's arms. Imperial holodramas aren't big on subtlety. invoked

Happily Married: To Dia by the time of Mercy Kill, although it appears they broke up at some point and she had a daughter whom Face adopted.

Ton Phanan

Ton is a bitter, sarcastic doctor who is allergic to Bacta, and thus ended up half-cybernetic when the medship he was serving on during the Battle of Endor was attacked. He became a pilot after deciding that he'd rather kill people than heal them.

Captain Crash: By his own admission, he's not that great at landing. He also loses three starfighters in the books, though the first time it was due to circumstances beyond his control. He doesn't survive the last one, though he does at least get a chance to talk to Face one last time before he goes.

Combat Medic/Deadly Doctor: Being a doctor can come in handy when you're asked to surrender your weapons. He cut a guy's throat with a laser scalpel at one point when everyone had been relieved of their blasters or vibroknives, because their captors hadn't realised his equipment could re-purposed. He's a good guy, but he's a little creepy about it.

"It's a tool of medicine. I wasn't asked to turn over my bandages, bacta treatments, disinfectant sprays, or tranquilizers either, but I can kill a man with any of them, under the right circumstances."

Collector of the Strange: Likes bugs (he was that kid who liked making girls shriek with them) and winds up keeping some as pets. They are bequeathed to Face when Phanan dies, on the grounds that Phanan thought they were cute and "cuteness should be preserved".

Heterosexual Life-Partners: With Face. The first day they met, they were finishing each other's sentences and annoying the hell out of everybody else within hours.

Improvised Weapon: When the Wraiths are captured at the beginning of Iron Fist, the Imps confiscate their weapons... but they don't touch Ton's medical bag. That turned out to be an oversight on their part.

Kell Tainer

The Wraiths' demolition expert, Kell's father was in the Rebellion during its early days, but panicked and tried to flee during a critical mission and had to be shot down to avoid it being compromised. He was Wes Janson's first kill. Kell is attempting to make up for his father's failure, but blames Janson just as much. In later series, he is married to Tyria and has two kids with her, Doran, who became a Jedi Knight, and Jesmin, a lightsaber-wielding Antarian Ranger who joined Wraith Squadron.

Ace Pilot: He's the most skilled pilot in the squadron except for Wedge (and possibly Janson).

Alternate History: He actually uses this as his backstory for one infiltration mission, calling himself Kell Doran (his birth name) and being a civilian shuttle pilot...basically just being an alternate version of himself, if he had decided to pursue a civilian career rather than join the Rebellion.

Badass Normal: In addition to his demolition skills, he also has martial arts training, which he uses to good effect in the field at least Once A Book. See also Ace Pilot.

Brick Joke: His last real mission in Wraith Squadron goes much the same way as his first simulator run near the beginning of the same book. Five kills, instant ace. Only this time, Runt doesn't get all his points.

Creepy Blue Eyes: Is mentioned to have very pale blue eyes, very slightly too dark and narrow which can make him look like a bit like a madman.

Cowardly Lion: Constantly deals with a strong performance anxiety that he mistakes for cowardice. It nearly overwhelms him in the final battle against Implacable, but he's eventually able to overcome it. The fear never completely disappears, but it's never more than a nuisance for him after Wraith Squadron.

Out of Focus: He's the main protagonist of Wraith Squadron, but has barely a scene to himself in the latter two Wraith books. TNot a bad thing, as he had finished his Character Development arc and this allowed Allston to look at the other characters in more detail.

You Killed My Father: Which makes things somewhat awkward for Wes Janson, considering that Kell is a relatively large man with high proficiency with both unarmed combat and explosives. It turns out that rather than completely hating him, Kell is terrified of Janson, seeing him as a deadly and unforgiving taskmaster. This could not possibly be less true.

Tyria Sarkin

A human female pilot from Toprawa, a planet viciously subjugated by the Empire. Blackmailed by a training officer, her career is flaming out in a combination of poor piloting skills and black-market pressure until Wedge picks her for the Wraiths for her dual talents of minor Force-sensitivity and experience as a Toprawa Ranger, an elite anti-Imperial guerrilla force that had once served the Old Jedi Order before it was destroyed. She eventually becomes a Jedi Knight and marries Kell, with whom she had two children: Doran, who became a Jedi Knight after she trained him, and Jesmin, who joined Wraith Squadron.

Action Girl: Even more so than other Wraiths, as her background was one of fight, die, or be viciously humiliated just to survive on Toprawa. Even more so when her Force abilities improve.

Always Second Best: Despite being a Force-sensitive with no small amount of combat experience, her low scores as a pilot are a constant source of insecurity for her. For instance, initially she can't even use her Force Powers consciously; she just gets suspiciously accurate and life-saving hunches every now and then. She gets better about it as the series continues.

She also calls Kell out on Loving a Shadow when he first professes his feelings for her. When he later came back to address the issue after having thought it over at length, she admits that she's returned those feelings all along.

Spider-Sense: Thanks to her Force sensitivity. It saves the Wraiths on a couple of occasions.

Took a Level in Badass: Initially the weakest pilot of the group, she obsessively trains, gains confidence, and becomes one of the most solid members of the Wraiths. After some time, her Force powers even develop enough that she leaves the military and becomes a full-fledged Jedi.

Voort "Piggy" saBinring

Piggy is a Gamorrean who was a result of Imperial experimentation. As a result, his intelligence surpasses by far that of his species, and even most humans. After being forced to Mercy Kill Runt during the Yuuzhan Vong War, Piggy retired and became a professor before Face managed to recruit him again fifteen years later to investigate a rogue Galactic Alliance General.

Alone in a Crowd: He doesn't make a huge deal of it, but the point is poignantly made that he is unique - and therefore alone, as only a totally unique being can be. To him, other Gamorreans are brutish and dull. To humans and most alien races, he is physically repulsive (and suffers from the stigma associated with his species). His washing out into Wraith Squadron had nothing to do with his competence as a pilot or any bad choices on his part.

Beware the Nice Ones: One of the most mild mannered and polite Wraiths, he can and will pick up a desk and beat you to death with it if you shoot him.

Do Not Call Me Paul: After the incident with Runt in the Yuuzhan Vong War, he refuses to use the nickname "Piggy" again throughout Mercy Kill until the end.

Fantastic Racism: He suffers from this a lot, but he also has it towards Yuuzhan Vong. When he is forced to work with one in Mercy Kill, he is constantly expecting to be betrayed, even though Scut was a Shamed One and raised by a human couple after being liberated when he was five.

Fatherly Scientist: Indeed, Piggy knew him as "father". He loved his creations like children. Unfortunately, most of them weren't psychologically equipped to handle their new intelligence and took their own lives; stricken with guilt, their creator followed them into death. Of all his "children", only Piggy chose to live.

Piggy mentions that he doesn't quite understand why they died...if he did, presumably he would join them.

Genius Bruiser: How much of a genius? He's considered a living tactical computer, able to increase the efficiency of pilots he flies with thanks to his mental calculations allowing him to call shots and maneuvers for them. How much of a bruiser? He picks up a desk and slams a ship bulkhead (and an assassin) with it so thoroughly he nearly knocks someone out in the next hallway over from the resulting dent. All while being gutshot from a blaster.

His defense against the false charge that got him in the Wraith selection pool—striking a superior officer—is that none of the people he did hit (during well-moderated challenge matches) were able to speak coherently within a half hour, the time it was filed.

Good with Numbers: This is often useful. He has a habit of trying to control all aspects of a skirmish by transmitting recommendations to his squadmates. He also makes an excellent spotter for snipers since he can calculate numerous variables and give them the information. He's often called upon to plot hyperspace courses; it's implied he can mentally do the complex calculations necessary to plot one without a navigational computer (though he might only be using this capability to check the computer results).

The Leader: Takes over command of Wraith Squadron halfway through Mercy Kill following Bhindi's death.

Mission Control: He can serve as this for other pilots while flying and shooting down other fighters himself.

Only Known by Their Nickname: He was originally given the nickname as an insult and tolerated it dispassionately, but Wedge tells him that Jek Porkins, a friend of his and Wes' who died in the Death Star trench run, was also called Piggy, and the name carries no stigma to him.

Hohass "Runt" Ekwesh

Runt is a Thakwaash pilot who was on the verge of washing out due to his species multiple personalities. As a member of Wraith Squadron, he learned to control his personalities and created new ones that helped him develop more skills.

Jesmin Ackbar

Jesmin is the niece of Admiral Ackbar. This caused her to constantly be placed by her commanding officers onto safe assignments for fear of her dying under their command and suffering Ackbar's wrath. She joined Wraith Squadron because she knew this would not happen under Wedge. She is the first casualty of the squadron.

Forgotten Fallen Friend: Not in Wraith Squadron, but in Iron Fist she is mentioned, once, with her name misspelled as "Jasmin". Solo Command doesn't mention her at all, even though Falynn and Grinder get namedropped as among the squadron's losses. In Mercy Kill, one of Tyria and Kell's children is named after her, though.

One possible explanation is that the main character that was affected by her death was Kell as he failed to save her. Iron Fist and Solo Command mainly focus on Face and Myn/Lara respectively and Kell is rarely a viewpoint character in those books. Falynn was a much more important loss to Myn who is the one that mentions her in his segment.

Noodle Incident: Before the unit was named or the roster finalized, one of the prospective Wraiths, a Quarren - a species that does not traditionally get along well with Mon Calamari - slapped her.

Falynn Sandskimmer

Ace Pilot: Even before joining Wraith Squadron, she was an ace as a Y-Wing pilot.

Always Second Best: She feels this way about her position in the unit: she has a lot of skills, but at least one person in the unit is better than her at each of them. Her desire to prove herself and do things that no one else has done causes her to take a lot of risks, and eventually gets her killed.

Florence Nightingale Effect: Some of the other Wraiths speculate that her interest in Donos comes from romantic attraction to him, others feel she wants to fix him, Grinder thinks it'll start with the latter and she will fall for him while helping.

Sour Supporter: Like Luke Skywalker, she's from Tatooine - and she's never met Luke, she wishes she's never heard of him. Falynn is often charged with insubordination because she just doesn't respect most superior officers, or famous Rebels, just because she's supposed to. She does come to respect Wedge... eventually.

Shalla Nelprin

Action Girl: She's a better hand-to-hand fighter than Kell Tainer, which really says something. Zsinj's best hand-to-hand combat instructor, when asked about a claim that she could kill a Wookiee hand-to-hand, stated that while he didn't think it was possible for a human to pull it off, she came closer than anyone else he'd seen. He gave this assessment with his nose broken, after Shalla nearly kicked his face in as a demonstration. Her one "quirk" is that she has trouble keeping still.

The Smart Girl: Not only is she an effective combatant, she is also skilled at sifting intelligence reports. Which makes sense, once you learn that her father was likely an Imperial Intelligence officer who went into hiding. As a result, she also does quite a bit of the analysis of the group.

Dia Passik

Broken Bird: Sold into slavery as child to be a dancer, she harbored a polite hatred for others of her species for doing this, and is generally ruthless and sort of hostile to her teammates. She is then forced into Shoot Your Mate with Castin Donn (he seems dead, she tells us she thinks he was dead, but it's ambiguous) while undercover and has a Heroic BSOD in which she tries to commit suicide. Face stops her, and eventually ends up in a relationship with her, and she defrosts.

Compressed Lekku: When Dia and some of the other Wraiths are disguised as Stormtroopers, another member of the squad guesses that Dia is extremely uncomfortable with her sensitive Lekku scrunched up.

Happily Married: To Face by the time of Mercy Kill, although it appears they broke up at some point and she had a daughter whom Face adopted.

Castin Donn

Fantastic Racism: It's not so much that he believes other species inferior; it's more that he's had no experience and didn't emphathize with them, so picked fights and just generally does not get along.

Insufferable Genius: Takes over from Grinder as the squadron's new slicer and has the same kind of ego, though he's less playful and prone to grandiose statements. His squadmates wonder if he's as good.

"It'll work. My codes and patches always work."

[The others look at him.]

"Well, mostly."

Too Clever by Half: He lacks Grinder's caution, especially when it comes to slicing. This comes back to bite him when he opens an access panel without scanning it for traps first, triggering a silent alarm. In a similar situation in the previous novel, Grinder had scanned a seemingly-standard security panel before attempting to open it and found it contained a false layer; this foresight allowed him to bypass both without tripping an alarm.

It's All My Fault: He was a slicer who, at the end of Return of the Jedi, broadcast images of the second Death Star's destruction on Imperial Center/Coruscant. Citizens went wild and some tried tearing down a statue of the Emperor. Then stormtroopers came to "restore order" and fired on the crowd. Castin was there and rescued a small child before it could be trampled, but felt some responsibility for the deaths anyway.

Mildly Military: The Wraiths are known for not always following protocol, but Wedge insists on a measure of professionalism which Castin just isn't up to. He has bad posture when asking to meet with Wedge - which Wedge would allow from someone who's served with him for a while, but not the New Meat - he's always slouching in general, he tries to question Wedge's authority while the other Wraiths are present, and he flagrantly disobeys orders - not in the ignoring-a-new-order-in-combat sense, which other Wraiths have done, but in a much riskier and ultimately catastrophic way.

The Greatest Story Never Told: Near the end of his life, he starts to get over his racist disdain for nonhumans when he finds, to his surprise, a sudden deep sympathy for the ones held captive on Iron Fist. To the point where he cuts his own chance for escape short by freeing one.

Elassar Targon

Token Religious Teammate: He's strongly superstitious, and when Runt sneezes during a meeting, he takes it as a sign they'd forgotten an important detail in the planning.note They had, but it had nothing to do with Runt and everything to do with a communication problem between Wedge and Chewbacca. Just before the mission, Wedge spots Targon putting charms all over Runt's fighter, to the latter's annoyance.

Bhindi Drayson

A Mother to Her Men: A negative example: she views all the new young members of Wraith Squadron as "kids" and constructs her plans around what she thinks will give them the best chance to survive. Unfortunately, this impairs her judgment and limits Wraith Squadron's options in several cases, and leads to her death when she takes the whole team on what should be a two person scouting operation, which causes them to be detected and her getting shot while trying to hold off reinforcements chasing them.

This Is Gonna Suck: Her shrieking reaction to everything going wrong on the infiltration of a secret Pop-Dog base and encountering a second team of Wraiths:

Bhindi: This is not going to end well, this is not going to end well, this is not going to end well."

Baljos Arnjak

Sharr Latt

Sharr is a human male who was a member of Wraith Squadron during the Yuuzhan Vong War, and led a team of Wraiths fifteen years after the war that investigated General Stavin Thaal. He specializes in psychological warfare.

Myri Antilles

Daddy's Girl: Implied in Mercy Kill. She refers to Wedge as "Daddy" while referring to her mother as "Mom," takes after him to some degree with many of her skills and participation in Wraith Squadron, and when she calls him for an evac when the Wraiths are in trouble, he comes as soon as is physically possible.

I Am Not My Father: Averted: She's perfectly happy with being well known because of the accomplishments of the rest of her family, but she also wants to make a name for herself so that when people hear her name they'll stop telling her that she "must be proud" of her father/mother/sister.

Professional Gambler: As a young teenager during the Vong War, she grew up in the Errant Venture's casino, and her first job was a dealer.

Technical Pacifist: She always has her blaster set on stun, and dislikes it when another Wraith kills when they don't absolutely have to. However, she is still willing to kill if nessecary.

Turman Durra

Turman is a Clawdite actor who joins Wraith Squadron to bring down rogue General Stavin Thaal.

Butt Monkey: Throughout Mercy Kill he is subjected to various discomforting situations, all Played for Laughs. These include being accidently drugged (and gagged so the others don't have to hear his non sequitur theatrical soliloquies) as well as being stuck in a artificial (and living!) sea creature suit for days, which left him screaming for a shower.

Trey Courser

Codename: "Muscle Boy", but unwillingly. He argued that it didn't cover all of his talents and did not show him in a comprehensive light when assigned it, but accepted it after Myri offered the suggestion of "Pretty Boy" instead.

Viull "Scut" Gorsat

A Yuuzhan Vong Shamed One who was rescued by Galactic Alliance Intelligence when he was just five years old. He was raised by a human couple alongside human siblings, and his father told him stories of Wraith Squadron, who had rescued him from an Imperial Admiral. He jumped at the chance to join the legendary unit, and uses his bio-fabrication skills to create neoglith masques for them.

Berserk Button: Being harassed for being a Yuuzhan Vong. The one time he yells is when Piggy claims that Yuuzhan Vong have no idea what logic is.

Headbutting Heroes: With Piggy: he thinks that Piggy is too traumatized by the Yuuzhan Vong war to work as a spy, while Piggy is convinced that Yuuzhan Vong are Always Chaotic Evil and Scut will turn on them any moment.

Winter Celchu

An Alderaanian intelligence agent and best friend and adopted sister of Princess Leia Organa. She eventually marries fellow Alderaanian Tycho Celchu of Rogue Squadron.

Actually That's My Assistant: She would often be mistaken for Princess Leia by visitors to Alderaan, who thought the stoic, dignified, and regal looking Winter seemed more like the Princess of Alderaan than Leia did.

Blessed with Suck: Her Photographic Memory. She's Alderaanian and remembers the destruction of her homeworld with as much clarity as if it happened yesterday, as well as a number of other unpleasant incidents in her life. However, during the Yuuzhan Vong War, Luke reflects that Winter's memory also allows her to recall so many wonderful things as well, including his deceased nephew Anakin, and is comforted that someone will always be able to recall him.

Photographic Memory: She can recall with perfect clarity everything she has ever seen or heard, and can even remember her exact emotions from any point in her past. While a very useful skill (Leia essentially uses her as a living data recorder during meetings, and they are both amused by what the potential reactions of the other people in the meetings would be if the knew), it also has its drawbacks since she can remember terrible events with fresh clarity every time she thinks of them.

Horton Salm

Elites Are More Glamorous: He gets annoyed with Rogue Squadron being turned into a propaganda symbol, as it means the more average-skilled squadrons he trains are trying to compete with them and will get themselves killed.

Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right: After complaining for several chapters about the Rogues ignoring the rules whenever they feel like it, he goes against orders and brings his own squadrons back to a battle in order to rescue the Rogues. He insists afterward, however, that Wedge not merely gloss over the fact that Salm had disobeyed a direct order.

Edor Crespin

Cool Manoeuvre: Creates one in the climax of "Wraith Squadron" to take out both of Admiral Trigit's escorts at once with his A-wing.

Atton Repness

Bait-and-Switch Tyrant: Inverted. He first appears as an officer investigating an attack on the Wraiths and is actually a Reasonable Authority Figure who accepts Face's rather odd explanation for how he knew who the attackers were after seeing some evidence. It's only afterwards that Face discovers he's the same guy who ruined Tyria's career.

Fell Off the Back of a Truck: He has a clever money-making scheme—claim to be an ace teacher of remedial pilots while actually fiddling their test scores to make them better, then only let the pilots keep the new scores if they will go on smuggling runs for him that involve selling 'lost' military equipment to the black market.

Greying Morality: He's one of the few people from EU books from this era who is both a bad guy and a loyal member of the New Republic military, not simply working undercover for the Empire or anything.

Laryn Kre'fey

A Father to His Men: Attempted, but doesn't really succeed. He does at least lead his troops from the front, though.

My Species Doth Protest Too Much: He and his grandchildren are both somewhat sore about how, after the events mentioned in Return of the Jedi, Bothans are now thought of mainly as spies and the contributions of their warriors are ignored. This leads to him acting recklessly to prove himself.

Well-Intentioned Extremist: Is so determined to ensure that Adumar joins the New Republic that he starts undermining New Republic principles, creates a war of conquest, and tries to get Wedge when the latter starts getting in his way.

Sair Yonka

"The Reason You Suck" Speech: Delivers a excellent one to Isard upon defecting from her forces, which is so good her closest advisor barely stops himself from appaluding during it:

"Madam Director Ysanne Isard, I regret not being able to bring you this message personally, but not that much. In the time I have been associated with you I have found you to be sociopathically self-centered, prone to irrational and impulsive reactions to situations, and prey to a preference for appearance over substance. I have no doubt these affectations were seen as skills by the late Emperor, and indeed may have enhanced your ability to comply with his orders, but by no means are these traits that make for great, or even adequate leadership."

Hallis Saper

Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Regularly does her work while wearing a 3PO protocol droid head (named Whitecap) on her shoulder.

Intrepid Reporter: Her sense of ethics puts her solidly here, even if she uses some "sludgenews" techniques at times (see Paparazzi below).

Obfuscating Stupidity / Clark Kenting: She uses Whitecap to divert people's attention from her own features, so that she can record more discreetly by taking Whitecap off.

Paparazzi: She knows all the techniques of this type of journalism (called "sludgenews" in-story). She got out of sludgenews because she decided it didn't really make the universe a better place, but she's kept some of the techniques handy.

Stop Copying Me: When Whitecap malfunctions partway through the novel, it does this.

Ysanne Isard

Effective leader of the Empire for the first two Rogue Squadron novels, originally being the Director of Imperial Intelligence. Later led an Imperial remnant based on Thyferra. After that it gets... complicated.

Cloning Blues: Isard's Revenge has both the original Isard and a clone. They don't get along.

Duality Motif: One eye is red and one is blue, evoking fire and ice to suggest her tendency towards both cold intellect and raging fury.

Foreshadowing: In the Wraith Squadron books, Face has a theory that the Rogues didn't kill her when they destroyed her shuttle in The Bacta War. He turns out to be right.

General Failure: Isard's a talented spymaster, but she's out of her depth when it comes to warfare.

Klingon Promotion: After arranging for her father Armand, her predecessor as Director of Imperial Intelligence, to be falsely fingered as a Rebel sympathiser.

The Plan: Rather than trying to defend Coruscant, she arranged for it to be infected with the manmade Krytos Plague (affecting aliens only) so the New Republic would conquer a poisoned chalice and be open to accusations of not doing enough to live up to its alien-friendly reputation. However the Rogues' activity did mean that Coruscant fell earlier than she wanted and the plague was less bad than she'd hoped.

She comes up with another one in The Bacta War, with shades of Xanatos Gambit. She orders the gathering of a certain number of Vratix per day, with the understanding that at the end of thirty days they would all be executed, at which point she starts gathering twice that per day. If Wedge reacts to it, he's forced into the open; if Wedge doesn't, she rids herself of a labor surplus. She doesn't realize that Wedge has quietly been assembling an attack force to travel to Thyferra, and by the time she even comes up with the idea, he's nearly ready. All her threat does is set his timetable.

Punny Name: She's known as "Iceheart", similar to how 'Isard' is pronounced.

Villainous Breakdown / Motive Decay: Over the course of the series she goes from trying to destroy the Rebellion with ruthless but effective tactics to trying to destroy Rogue Squadron with what amounts to random acts of genocide that alienate her supporters more than they actually achieve anything. Justified in-universe after her plan was less effective than expected, and then after she resurfaced only a few ships joined her, with the Empire no longer recognising her authority.

Also, her most Stupid Evil moments are later chalked up to her going partially insane due to the frustration Rogue Squadron causes her.

Isaard's motivation is not "save and strengthen the Empire" (that's more Thrawn and Pellaeon) or "enhance my own power" (as with Zsinj) but rather "destroy the Rebels!" Thus she is perfectly willing to do things that seriously damage the Empire if they also damage the Rebellion/New Republic.

Kirtan Loor

Old enemy of Corran Horn from when he was an Imperial Intelligence overseer on Corellia, and ensured the killer of Corran's father got Off on a Technicality. Serves under Isard and is tasked with leading the pro-Imperial resistance after the New Republic takes Coruscant.

Awesomeness by Analysis: Generally not capable of this, but after Isard criticises him in the first book for being overly reliant on his memory and not performing sufficient analysis of data, he does manage to figure out where Rogue Squadron's secret base is based on not much information.

Celebrity Resemblance: In-universe — Loor believes he looks like a "taller, handsomer Grand Moff Tarkin" (and, as other characters indicate, he's not far wrong) and plays up the resemblance. In actuality he is neither as intelligent and masterfully manipulative, nor as evil, as Tarkin was.

Distaff Counterpart: In one short story, Corran Horn helped a Rebel sympathiser infiltrate a facility by using his knowledge of Loor's backstory to create the identity of "Kirtana Loor" for her. The real Loor showed up soon afterwards and it's implied he did not find it as funny as Corran.

Know-Nothing Know-It-All: Thinks he's much cleverer than he is, and the reader knows it. He realizes it too... seconds before bleeding out.

Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: He made a mistake when editing the criminal Zekka Thyne's arrest file which prevented Black Sun from getting him off Kessel where he'd been imprisoned; Corran calls it the only good thing Loor ever did.

Photographic Memory: Which he relies on too much at the expense of developing other skills, ultimately resulting in his doom.

Revenge/It's Personal: Loor only gets up to really nasty stuff when plotting against his old enemies from the Corellian Security Force, such as Corran Horn and Gil Bastra. The rest of the time he's a more sympathetic character who is repulsed by a lot of Isard and Derricote's plans.

Surrounded by Idiots: Likes to think this. While he's certainly not as clever as he thinks himself, it does sometimes happen—in Rogue Squadron Loor figures out where the Rogues are based and, had the Imperials sent a full assault force as he asked, the squadron would have been completely wiped out, but Admiral Devlia only sent a few stormtroopers with the result that only a handful of pilots and guards were killed or injured.

Sate Pestage

Hailing from Ciutric IV, Sate Pestage is one of Emperor Palpatine's oldest and most ruthless advisors, aiding in his rise to power during the days of the Old Republic. Following the Emperor's demise, Pestage made a bid for power, only to be outmaneuvered by Ysanne Isard and killed by Dalak Krennel. However, another Pestage made his way Byss, where he aided the reborn Emperor in his bid to reclaim power, only to be killed when the planet was destroyed by the Galaxy Gun.

Continuity Snarl: Which Pestage was the clone: the one killed by Krennel, or the one who died on Byss? Multiple sources contradict each other on the issue.

Admiral Delak Krennel

Red Right Hand: His prosthetic right arm, which he choses not to cover up because it freaks other people out.

Fliry Vorru

Affably Evil: He seems to be genuinely courteous to, or at least diplomatic with, other people.

Beware the Nice Ones: He can be pushed too far, however. Zekka Thyne learned this the hard way. (Or perhaps, failed to learn; it's implied this isn't the first time Vorru's done that to Thyne.)

Corrupt Corporate Executive: As Moff of Corellia, he was responsible for turning it into a Wretched Hive—though according to Corran's father, the criminals at least stuck to a certain code, not committing collateral damage against civilians etc., which went out of the window when Prince Xizor overthrew Vorru and sent him to Kessel.

I Coulda Been a Contender: He was a political rival of the Emperor himself in his youth, and thus doesn't take people like Isard as seriously as others.

Pragmatic Villainy: Even his most evil acts (such as ordering the school bombing) have a practical purpose behind them. In The Bacta War, he repeatedly shows himself to be more level-headed than Isard, which highlights the latter's ongoing Villainous Breakdown.

Erisi Dlarit

Yandere: For Corran. To such an extent that it could be argued her actions at the end of the second book — which led to his capture and attempted brainwashing — were designed with the ultimate goal of "Evil Corran" winding up with her after what she assumed would be successful brainwashing.

Admiral Teren Rogriss

An Imperial Admiral. He was Han Solo's Imperial opposite during the Zsinj campaign and worked closely with Han in trying to take down the warlord - despite the fact that it was technically treason for both of them. He was later in charge of the Imperial expedition to Adumar but switched sides when he was ordered to attack Adumar after having personally promised Adumar that he would honor a decision to not do so.

Anti-Villain: He's an honorable man who happens to work for the other side.

Honor Before Reason: Despite the fact that Adumar is a huge strategic advantage to whichever side wins their loyalty, he refuses to attack Adumar and defects from the Empire when ordered to attack it as it would be breaking his word to the Adumarians.

Turr Phennir

Leader of the 181st Fighter Wing. Was present on Adumar as the head of the Empire's pilot representatives on Adumar. He later became the military leader of the Confederation during the Second Galactic Civil War.

Number Two: Was Baron Fel's second in command, and took over the 181st after Fel defected.

Zsinj's Forces

Warlord Zsinj

Admiral Zsinj was once one of the Empire's most dangerous soldiers, and when the Emperor died he became one of the galaxy's greatest warlords. Introduced in The Courtship of Princess Leia, Zsinj was conceived as a buffoonish Harmless Villain who only presented a threat because he possessed a Super Star Destroyer and had access to an experimental superweapon called a Nightcloak. He then died uncerimoniously at the end of the book. He and his forces were reimagined via Cerebus Retcon in the X-Wing Series as a master of misdirection and enough firepower to fight the New Republic and the Empire at the same time.

Bad Boss: Zigzagged; he's capable of considerable brutality and cruelty stemming from emotion, but can also sometimes be pragmatic. For example, when the Imperial Stormtrooper Gatterweld offers to help him regain control of Razor's Kiss, we see in the next book that Zsinj rewarded him with an officer's commission, even though the attempt failed.

Combat Pragmatist: His strategy is this on a grand scale. In the Stackpole books he hopes that the Rebels and Isard will exhaust each other and allow him to come out on top. When the New Republic plans their conquest of Coruscant, they decide they have to come up with a plan that lets them take it with its defences intact, as otherwise Zsinj will just come in and easily take the defenceless planet from them in turn.

Corrupt Corporate Executive: His warlord empire is funded and supplied by a slew of shadow companies across many worlds, owned by Zsinj under assumed names.

In fact, this is the root of Zsinj's power: while he's far from a General Failure, he's no top-level tactical genius like Thrawn, either—overall, he's competent, but not spectacular. What distinguishes him is the corporate empire that he's constructed; it reinforces his military might, making him a major threat. When the Republic and Empire team up to bring down his corporate interests, his power becomes greatly reduced, ultimately leading to his downfall.

Early-Bird Cameo: He's the main villain of the Allston books, but also appears as something of an Outside-Context Villain in the Stackpole books, intruding as a third party into the New Republic/Isard fight and being manipulated by Isard.

Man in White: He wears an Imperial Grand Admiral's uniform, a rank which he never attained in the Imperial Navy.

Meaningful Rename: He always renames his current flagship after his first command, an old Victory Star Destroyer where he made his name battling pirates: Iron Fist.

Obfuscating Stupidity: Cleverly used to excuse the cardboard villainy of Zsinj and Melvar in The Courtship of Princess Leia.

The Spymaster: He inherits much of Isard's former Imperial Intelligence operatives and surrounds himself with them: when studying Zsinj's psychology, the Wraiths speculate that he likes testing his Obfuscating Stupidity image against their skills.

Take a Third Option: During the Stackpole books he was the third main faction of the galaxy besides the New Republic and the Isard-led remnant of the Empire, and both sides attempted unsuccessfully to court him, while he played both off against the other.

Villainous Breakdown: At least twice during Solo Command. An epic one after Dr. Gast is captured by the Wraiths, and a more subdued one later when measures by both the New Republic and the Empire prove effective at chipping away bits of his economic empire.

General Melvar

The Nondescript: Described as having incredibly bland features. People find it even harder to recognise him because they usually see him in makeup pulling a stereotypical villainous expression as part of his Obfuscating Stupidity.

Stealth Hi/Bye: Loves to pull this on others, especially Zsinj. In Solo Command, we even see how he pulls it off.

Admiral Apwar Trigit

Bad Boss: Unlike most Imperial villains, this is far from obvious at first—he seems to have genuine respect for much of his crew, but still abandons them to die at the end, trying to justify it by saying the New Republic would interrogate them and use that information to kill others.

This is a particularly shocking change for the reader because Trigit's Establishing Character Moment was him thinking about how Isard's excessive Bad Boss tendencies meant people abandoned her in her hour of need (including himself) and that he therefore considers such an attitude to be stupid.

It's All About Me: We first get a glimpse of this when he learns about a New Republic ambush; rather than follow the task force in and help escort them out of trouble (as Face later suggested, as Darillian, Trigit "should" have done), he chooses to pull out of hyperspace prematurely and leave a hypercomm message to the ships that actually made it to the destination. It becomes far more obvious at the end of the story, when he learns he's about to lose his ship.

The Starscream: He doesn't really have ambitions to overthrow Zsinj, but views himself as an independent who just happens to be aligned with Zsinj rather than his subordinate, and clashes with him over this.

Villainous Breakdown: He snaps and starts doing many of the same things he abandoned Isard over when he realises that the Implacable is doomed.

He was about to lose his ship. His true love.

Captain Darillian

Miles Gloriosus: He had a captain's log recorded in full holo (in real-world terms, like using high-definition film for your private video blog) and boasted to it about fighting "the Rebels" like a cartoon villain - which makes his ignoble end before ever seeing any combat (or page-time) that much more morbidly hilarious.

Out-of-Character Alert: Face's impression of him almost cracks when he fails to recognise an Imperial Intelligence expression used by Trigit that the real Darillian would have, as both men had Intelligence backgrounds.

Posthumous Character: He only physically appears in the story as a mess of fried flesh splattered across the ceiling after Piggy blasted his way up to the bridge of the Night Caller with his laser cannon. All we see of him are holographic recordings.

Edda Gast

An arrogant biologist at Binring Biotech on Saffalore. Worked on Zsinj's Project Chubar.

Smug Snake: When we first see her, she displays a remarkable arrogance, and proves herself to be a ruthless bitch when she almost immediately complies with a Shoot Your Mate situation (the "mate" in question being her superior at Binring), and doesn't shed one tear over her superior's death. She's not as brilliant as Zsinj, though: Her attempt to kill Wraith Squadron fails, forcing her to switch sides to save her own skin, and after we've had to deal with her arrogance for most of the book, she proceeds to get played like a puppet by Nawara Ven.

Adumar

Cheriss ke Hanadi

The Ground Champion of Adumar (meaning she's the best duelist) at the time of Starfighters of Adumar. She's assigned as an escort to Red Flight during their stay on the planet. She later becomes a pilot after the chemical imbalance that caused her to suffer from vertigo was corrected.

Action Girl: You don't become Ground Champion of Adumar any other way.

Bad Ass: Fought three consecutive fights and won the first two before losing the third... after not sleeping the entire previous night.

Combat Pragmatist: Her fighting style is specifically noted to be less elegant and stylistic than the way the nobility fights. It didn't get her many fans at first, but her ability to win her fights gradually overcame that. She's impressed by the fighting style of the four New Republic pilots for the same reason.

Honor Before Reason: Several instances but most clear when she, completely exhausted from being up the previous night and having just completed two duels, and being convinced to cease her Suicide By Duelist, continues the duel anyways because she had already accepted it and would lose honor if she backed out of it now.

Justified Trope: It's her planet's hat, but in the last instance, if she backed out, she would be committing career suicide.

Balass ke Teldan

Pekaelic's son, and his successor after he resigned following Cartann's defeat.

Chekhov's Gunman: We first see this character as Balass ke Rassa, a pilot who has a brief discussion with Wedge on the definition of honor.

Fanboy: To Wedge. Unfortunately for him, he cannot show this due to the restrictions of his office.

Hidden Backup Prince: The prince was brought up as a commoner under an assumed name. It's implied that this is done with all Cartannese princes; no word on whether this is the case in other Adumari nations.

Other Characters

Mirax Terrik

Booster Terrik

Jerk with a Heart of Gold: The "jerk" part can be seen in his general behavior, especially toward Corran Horn. The "heart of gold" comes into play where his daughter Mirax and adopted son Wedge are concerned.

Papa Wolf: Very protective of his daughter Mirax, and also cares a great deal for his adopted son Wedge Antilles. He does not like Corran one bit at first, but eventually grows to respect and grudgingly like him.

And in later series, don't you dare go anywhere near his grandchildren. Unless you want 500 of the top officials, business moguls, and stars held at ransom while he blows up military hardware demanding you let them go.

It extends to pretty much all of Rogue Squadron. He beats the crap out of Borrsk Fey'lya with his bare hands ( Bothans are descended from lion-like predators, and have the teeth and claws capable of tearing a human to shreds to prove it) when the latter tried to manipulate one of the Rogues for his own political gain in Isaard's Revenge. This wasn't just a sucker punch, either. It was an all-out Curb-Stomp Battle.

Loka Hask

A former pirate turned Imperial captain. During his criminal days, he was directly responsible for the deaths of Wedge's parents, Jagged and Zena Antilles.

Body Horror: When a young Wedge Antilles blew up his pirate vessel in revenge for the deaths of his parents, Hask survived via spacesuit. However, a Corellian limpet had stowed away in his suit, and permanently grafted itself to the side of his face, leading to Hask's distinctly horrifying appearance.

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